Today's to-do list: Deinococcus radiodurans

Moira Garland

after Christian Bok

* Breakfast: arsenic and uranium fix at café ChernobylReactor 4.

* Drive down to Waterloo battle site. Dine on nutritional lead left-overs.

* Solo wild swim, cells boiling in water of 373° Kelvin. Relax in hydrochloric bath. 

* Meet the estate agent at Yucca Mountain Repository. ‘Steel drums! Fully accessible!’ (Tomorrow: investigate alternatives such as the stratosphere)

* Sew up my genome damage. (Mutate my DNA – who does that?) 

* Copy and paste for tomorrow.

* Text the tardigrade – if it’s awake – Ready for another trip to the stars? Travelling at Mach 1 again = Fun! Fun! Fun!

The Science

I am amazed at some of the scientific discoveries being reported in both poetry and the media. Deinococcus radiodurans are bacteria known as extremophiles. They are a source of humility and wonder, dramatically different to what I had learnt in my 1960s schooling, about how creatures - and in this case bacteria - can survive in environments that are entirely hostile to human life: high temperatures, pressure, pH, salt concentrations, heavy metals, and radiation. And what’s more can repair their own DNA.

The Poet

Moira Garland is a prize-winning poet, and fiction writer. Poetry publications include journals such as The North, Stand, The Adriatic, Consilience, Fragmented Voices, and Sarasvati, and forthcoming in Magma. Her work appears in many anthologies. It has been set to music as part of Leeds Lieder Festival, and displayed for the Wakefield Moonriver to commemorate the 1969 moon landing. 

Next poem: Trove by Rosemary Joiner